


Veiled Truth

by palladionaigis



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, This could be a standalone, This was the first draft of one of the 100 themes prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8593414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palladionaigis/pseuds/palladionaigis
Summary: Minako, and life after death.





	

The dead dream.

Though sleep is nowhere close to death, it was like being surrounded by dreams constantly, without break, unable to wake from nightmares. More like constant visions. When her eyes did open into that vast white nothingness, Minako often felt lonely. Sometimes she heard Ryoji’s voice. It didn’t help much. She couldn’t see him or feel him, she just heard him. “What have you seen?” He’d always ask. She knew it was okay to answer, since he usually responded when she spoke. She’d tell him about the dreams, only sometimes. Other times she’d just say that there was nothing to talk about, and Ryoji didn’t push it.

Sometimes, she heard Pharos. She always knew it was him because his voice was higher, softer than Ryoji’s, and it spoke more comfortingly. When she heard him, she could close her eyes and see him, picture the way his lips would move when he spoke, and it made her feel like this was all a little more real. He never asked about the dreams. He only asked about her.

She felt pain too. She didn’t have a method to tell time anymore. Was it day or night back at the dorm, back at Gekkoukan? Ryoji might mention the season sometimes, so she knew at least several months had passed by now. Several months of these visions, the only things left tying her to her previous life, tying her to the rest of the residents of the dorm. She didn’t mind the whole Great Seal thing. She was, if anything, proud of herself that she could protect her close friends. It was the fact that she couldn’t look through some kind of magic portal and see what they were doing. 

It wasn’t like she was going to ask Ryoji about what was going on downstairs. Or was it upstairs?

“Downstairs,” Ryoji spoke into her mind with a laugh. She cursed. She’d almost forgotten that the boy could hear her thoughts. “Technically, your world is downstairs.”

“Okay, so it’s not Hell.” She mumbled.

“No.”

“Did... did they ever say what happened to me?”

Ryoji was silent, as though he hadn’t listened, before he finally spoke again. “They said you’d gotten sick. You died in your sleep, peacefully.”

“... Can you see what goes on down there?” Again, there was a silence. “Forget I said anything. Sorry, Ryoji.” She stared back out into the white nothingness, and after several minutes, Ryoji finally answered, right as she was drifting off.

“They miss you.”

Honestly, Minako would have been scared if they didn’t. It would have been more unfair than anything. She’d done so much with them and made so many good memories, and then they didn’t even miss her? Well. She just laid back against the nothingness which contorted to her body like a pillow and she fell back into the visions, not wanting to listen to Ryoji anymore. Despite, his voice still continued, ending up lulling her into a false sense of security when it came down to it, and she hated herself every second that it happened. 

The first person she always saw was Yukari. That bright smile and that faithful night where she first held the Evoker to her head to protect her and Orpheus heeded her call for help. Of course, it didn’t help that Thanatos, or Ryoji or even Pharos as she now knew, ripped his way out of poor Orpheus and finished the fight himself, so partially she kind of did blame him for the ridiculous way that fight turned out (as well as her sleeping for a week afterwards, damn him. She missed school for that). But that wasn’t important. She remembered the way Yukari could understand her, would hug her when they were both so down. 

“God, Minako, I’m glad I have you,” she’d whisper and all they could do was just sit there and smile because if anything, they had found each other and that was all that really mattered in the end. Then again, Yukari wasn’t even the person she was closest to. At one point she almost thought she’d developed something deeper than friendship with the girl, but it’d been shrugged off when Minako started dating and Yukari was too busy with her archery club to notice boys anymore.

Junpei was different. Junpei was her best friend, someone she could always go to even though he’d begun to ignore her just a little when Chidori came into the picture. Even when she practically carried herself out of it, Minako still didn’t spend as much time with the game enthusiast as she would have liked. After all, it was more fun spending time with him at Game Panic and Hagakure than just sitting around the dorm and doing her homework like a normal human being. (Even then, she digressed because she was in the top ten of her class and then achieved the top score during her second term finals so what was the use?)

Minako, apparently, would smile in her sleep when she remembered how Junpei would hug her and rub her back when she was down, especially after the whole incident with the gym photo that went around and practically ruined her reputation. (And her relationship, especially since it was actually that indecent - and who did that anyways? Total assholes, that’s who.) But things were patched up thanks to Junpei who was more than accommodating during the whole ordeal and actually would lend her his PSP so that she could get her mind off things with a little bit of virtual distraction. It wasn’t so much the fact that she’d almost broken up with her boyfriend several times because people kept mistaking Junpei for her boyfriend (which he definitely was not, no way in Tartarus was he going to ever be her boyfriend).

Mitsuru was a bit of an enigma. She treasured her senpai greatly; Mitsuru was the kind of woman who very rarely actually let her hair down figuratively. It was after Yukari had started to open up to her that the girl would actually seem like way more of a human being, and wasn’t just their ever reliable but very strict senpai anymore. Of course, she’d still execute the boys often (especially Akihiko and Junpei after the hot springs occurence - yes, they knew about that) and that made her a little more likeable instead of everyone being scared of her like they used to be.

Of course, there was Fuuka, too. That girl held Minako’s heart in a grip so tight that she could hardly find time to think of her to be any more than possibly the greatest human being in the entire world. She wished she could have taken those new headphones and her mp3 with her here, at least she’d be a little entertained in this great world of absolutely nothing, which was actually boring as hell. She didn’t let it get her down though. However, the memories of that cooking club with her were among some of her best. She wished it could have lasted longer. Those days of making sweet things to give away to people who would enjoy them... she missed that so much. She’d really miss Fuuka, too. She’d miss everyone, then again.

Ken was a little different. She’d held the boy close to her heart when she was alive. Impressionable as any child was, she found that the older boys definitely tried to impress him with being as dirty as they were. Those words were nothing for a child. One particular activity with Ken she’d enjoyed was being curled up on the couch with Koromaru too, watching re-runs of cartoons and old movies they played on TV every now and again. Those silly hours passed quickly, bringing her slowly but surely closer to where she was now. She remembered the glances Ken would throw her, those big child eyes that still then held a world of hope and happiness. Did he still look at the world like that? She could only hope.

Koromaru was there, too. Every time she needed someone. She’d walk into the dorm just feeling lower than she looked, always pushing herself to smile so that no one would expect anything, so that no one would see how burdened she really was between school, social life and Tartarus, of course. There was no way around that one. 

The perfect dog would watch as she plopped onto the couch and nudge his nose onto wherever her leg was bare. She’d let him up on the couch and it was as if she could feel how sullen she really was. She cried a lot back then, away from prying eyes in her room and then she’d hear that scratching at the door and she would let him in and he'd sit on her bed and sometimes sleep beside her.

Then, there was Aigis. Minako's heart ached. Aigis, that blonde hair pale as wheat, and those blue eyes as shocking as the sea of Yakushima where they first met. She remembered the oddly warm hugs, those tentative hands as deadly as the guns they concealed. The way she now longed to just cup those cheeks and tell her everything would be okay, to say she was sorry for closing her eyes that day, for not waiting. But all she could remember was the android cradling her close, whispering her goodbyes because she knew, she knew it was time. God, she missed Aigis so much. The sense of dread in her stomach was overwhelming.

Shinjiro... the thought of him was like the bullet that pierced his chest. Pain. So much pain. "Is he alive, Ryoji?" She'd asked once, and of course he'd known who she was talking about. She'd been thinking about picking at the threads of his beanie in the hours after he'd been shot. She was a zombie for the week after it'd happened. Gone to school and then gone to the hospital, sitting beside his bed, memorizing the intricate sound of the beeping of the heart monitor. She had been so surprised he'd survived, but so saddened that he wouldn't open his eyes, no matter how much she begged and pleaded.

She'd sit on the chair and Akihiko would come in and hold her hand, kiss her hair, because Shinjiro had asked Minako to take care of Akihiko, and she was going to honor that promise until her last breath, and she would use it to tell Shinjiro she was sorry for not living long enough for this. Many a night after the events of October 5th, she'd spend it on the second floor lounge with Akihiko, trying to hold in her tears but silently letting them fall. He'd be holding her against his chest and letting it happen, the sadness was too great to let go anyways.

Akihiko had perhaps been the rise after her fall from grace. After everyone doubted her, after she'd been so afraid everyone would hate her because she'd carried the very essence of death inside her for ten years, and they did, at least for several hours, if not a few days in some cases. But Akihiko didn't. Not even for a second. He'd followed her after she'd walked upstairs, sat with her for a while as she was silent. This was insane, but she knew. 

And she wanted to go back. So badly.

But her job was protecting her friends for the rest of their lives, and for the rest of eternity in her case. She would oversee them, their families, their children, their children's children... everyone. 

Even though there was an ache in her chest, this is what she knew was right.


End file.
